THE man who has the fate of Wangaratta Council in his hands has started the role with a simple message: something has to give here.
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Peter Stephenson, the municipal administration inspector appointed by Local Government Minister Jeanette Powell, met the council for the first time last night as part of its regular Tuesday night planning workshop.
He will conduct one-on-one interviews with councillors in coming days as the first step to ironing out the existing deep-seated ructions between Cr Julian Fidge and fellow councillors and senior staff members, including chief executive Doug Sharp.
The former mayor of Darebin Council in Melbourne said yesterday he was contacted by Mrs Powell a week ago about taking on the inspector position at Wangaratta, where four internal investigations were under way.
“You can’t colour this any other way than it has been pretty bloody messy,” Mr Stephenson said.
“The first thing is about winning some confidence between the elected team and the administration.
“The opening play is to be a straight-shooter, kid no one and don’t wrap it up in any fancy spin.
“I am here because there are some issues.”
Mr Stephenson has already had talks with mayor Rozi Parisotto and Mr Sharp since his arrival on Monday and was determined to get to the bottom of any fractured relationships.
“My message will be, ‘something has to give here’,” he said.
“Let’s get it on the table and deal with it.
“I am not looking at the alternatives, but clearly there are alternatives if we can’t get this to work.
“I’ve told the minister I am a positive person and I am not going to leave any energy unexpended. I don’t want to think about not getting a good outcome.
“No one wins if things don’t go well.”
Mr Stephenson is a former soldier who retired from the army in 1989 and has since had more than 20 years’ experience in senior roles in health and community services and local government.
He is the chairman of Darebin community health service in Melbourne.
Part of his job at Wangaratta is to monitor the level of community confidence in the council.
He has already met with some members of the business community whose identity he declined to reveal.
